THE GENESEE FARMER. 



197 



•uld be on the north side of a building or fence, as it is 



' y important to keep the sun off. If ■well done it will be 



i(.'J and strong in a month or six weeks. If j'ou could 



buds the latter part of June, budding would be much 



'east trouble, but it is difficult to get them any distance 



IS iliev are so liable to wilt. As soon as the grafts are 



11 litod the branches of the lemon tree should be prunned 



b;uk to the graft, so as to leave nothing but the graft to 



grow. 



yE. F., Clinton, C. W.) Millet is one of the best of crops 

 for fodder or for soiling purposes. It produces largtjy, 

 c;\n be sown late and is well adapted to our dry, hot cli- 

 mate. It draws heavily on the soil for those elements 

 most needed by wheat, barly, oats, corn &c.; and we would 

 n it advise its cultivation on the upland portion of a wheat 

 farm. 'When raised for fodder or for soiling, a rich alluvi- 

 al soil, abounding in organic matter and which is too loose 

 an 1 low (but not wet) is just the kind of land for it. Large 

 crops can be grown on such land in dry, hot summers when 

 all other forage crops are light. It may be sown anytime 

 in June or even as late as the first week in July. If grown 

 for seed it should not be sown too thick, say a peck per 

 acre, for fodder or for soiling two to three pecks of seed 

 per acre will be none too much. You can get the seed at 

 almost any seed store. E. D. Hallock. of this city has it 

 for sale at $1.50 per bushel. 



(J. L., Lancaster, Pa.) Stone-coal ashes contain very 

 little fertilizing matter. They have sometimes a beneficial 

 mechanical effect on the soil ; for radishes especially, they 

 are valuable on this account. They are useful for mixing 

 witli guano, superphosphate, and other concentrated ma- 

 nures. They are said to prove valuable applied as a top 

 dressing around fruit trees, acting probably as a mulch, 

 and checking the growth of weeds. We ha^e had no ex- 

 perience with them as a dressing for corn or potatoes. 

 The question, " What are they worth ? " we cannot an- 

 swer. Judged by their chemical composition, we should 

 say they are not v/orth three cents a bushel. 



(G. W. Thomas, Elderslie, C. W.) We believe Hardy's 

 White Mummy wheat and the Prolific Red wheat are 

 winter varieties. We should be glad to have you commu- 

 nicate the result of your trial with them to the Genesee 

 Farmer. 



(W. S. Bristol.) We know of no certain remedy for 

 the black knot on cherry trees, or for the curculio on plum 

 ' trees. Should be glad to hear from those who have dis- 

 covered a remedy. 



(D. F. H.) We have had no experience in grafting the 

 pear on the red or white hawthorn. 



Drying Figs. — I noticed in a late number of your pa- 

 per a request for information in regard to drying figs. A 

 relative of ours, residing in St. Augustine, where they 

 raise and cure them to perfection, has, according to re- 

 quest, furnished me with the following receipt : Put the 

 figs in hot, sweetened water ; then expose them to the sun 

 two days, or use artificial heat ; then put them into the 

 •weet water again ; then dry, thorouglilj. Habeiex H. 

 MxERa.—Liverjaool, N. Y, ~~ 



OiJK farming community have been thrown into quite a 

 state of excitement lately in reference to a sjBtcm of farm- 

 ing, called "Terra Culture," by Kissem, Comstocr. He 

 has delivered two lectures in the county witliin two months ; 

 some sixty or seventy persons attended eacli lecture, at a 

 eliarge of two dollars — a money making business. Since 

 attending his lecture at York Springs on the 18th instant, 

 I have read the Rural Anminl tliat you sent me, and am 

 far better pleased vvitli it than his lecture, even if it had 

 cost tlie same money. As Mr. Comstock is from your 

 State, perliaps you are acquainted with him. I should 

 like to know your opinion of him, and also of what he claims 

 to be his discoveries. II. J. Myers.— A^ew Chester, Pa. 



We are well acquainted with Mr. Comstock ; have had 

 repeated conversations with him on the subject of his al- 

 leged discoveries ; have listened attentively for ten long 

 hours to his lecture ; and candor compels us to say, with 

 Sheridan, that his system "contains much that is both 

 new and true, but unfortunately that whieS is true is not 

 new, and that which is new is not true." In the Genesee 

 Farmer for March, 1853, page 77, we fully exposed the 

 absurdity of his pretensions. 



I WISH to know if any of your subscribers in TTpper 

 Canada have a full bred Devon or Hereford yearling bufl 

 and heifer for, sale. E. T. — Clinton, C. \V. 



The breeders of Canada might promote their own in- 

 terests by advertising in the Genesee Farmer, 



If it would not be too much trouble to you to get a par- 

 ticular piece of information and publish it in the Genesee 

 Farmer foi the benefit of myself, I think you would find 

 it profitable to a good many of your readers who aie simi- 

 larly situated. The information I want and have sought 

 for in vain in Virginia, is tlie old plan of farming the 

 Carse of Cowrie and the Carse of Stirling. You are of 

 course aware of the quality and peculiarities of these soils, 

 and it strikes me that the ancient — or to be more expressive, 

 the antiquated — style of draining them by grip and water 

 furrow is better suited to the prices of our lands than the 

 effective, but far more costly mode of tile draining. I have 

 tried that as an experiment, at ^Mr. Parke's depths and find 

 it worth a good deal more than the fee simple of the land. 

 For this reason, we are, to use a lawyer's phraze, " re- 

 mitted to the original remedy," at least" until an effective 

 ditching machine is invented aided by a cheap machine for 

 making draining tile. 



Wilson in his Rural Cyclopedia — which with deference 

 to your better judgment, I think superior to Morton — 

 quotes in his article on " drainage," titled " surface drain- 

 age," a few remarks of Marshall on that subject. I have 

 one of Marshall's works — his Agrirulture, in'which I find 

 nothing of the sort ; and I cannot get access to any other. 

 I think it will be found perhaps that he has some remarks 

 touching this matter in his " Elementary and Practical 

 Treatise on the Landed property of England ;" London, 

 1801, quarto, or in an abridgment of that v/ork, entitled 

 " Treatise on the Management of Landed Estates ;" Lon- 

 don 1805, octavo. If by means of some correspondent or 

 friend in London you can have that worked looked into, 

 and suitable extracts copied, if they can be found, and can 

 do it without trouble, 1 should lie much obliged to you ; 

 and I think, as 1 said in the beginning, that it may benefit 

 others quite as much as it will me. 



Our season here has been the most backward I have ever 

 known, and the wheat that was killed by the winter, and 

 more particularly by the cold spell in March which follow- 

 ed a very warm February, cannot rally. A great deal of 

 our wheat all over the State is in that fix. It does not 

 brighten our prospects much to have a freshet on the 

 low grounds, as is just now the case on James liiver. I 

 have one hundred acres, on nearly all of which my corn 

 was planted, completely covered with water. * — Virginia. 



Can any of our readers throw any light on this subject ? 



Knowing your willingness to assist your readers, I wish 

 to ask your advice concerning a marsh, which I wish to 

 bring into cultivation. It has formerly been a large bea- 

 rer meadow, contaiaing about twenty acres, laying oa 



